Cynthia White was the key witness in the government's fraudulent trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal in 1982. White was the only witness who testified to seeing Mumia with a gun in his hand. No other witnesses saw that. It is also interesting that the other witnesses who saw Cynthia White that evening, all place her at a distance from the incident in a place where she could not have seen what happened.
Mumia's lawyers would very much like to talk to Cynthia White today. They would like to ask her what really happened. But, like so much of the government's case against Mumia, she has simply disappeared.
Now we know a lot more about Cynthia White and why she testified falsely against Mumia. A new witness, Pamela Jenkins, has come forward to provide the missing link in the chain of evidence against the police.
Pamela Jenkins was working as a teenage prostitute in the early 80s and knew Cynthia White well. Pamela also knew a lot of Philly cops well. In fact, one of them, Officer Thomas Ryan, was her boy friend at the time. Jenkins has now given a sworn statement that Ryan asked her to testify against Mumia and to falsely identify Mumia as the shooter, in spite of the fact that she wasn't even at the scene. She also states that Officer Ryan paid her $150 to help find White, and that the police put pressure on White to lie at Mumia's trial.
Should we believe Pamela Jenkins after all these years? Well the government has recently used her as a star witness in the police corruption cases in Philadelphia. For example, she revealed how Philly cops used her to provide fraudulent evidence to obtain the murder conviction of Raymond Carter. She testified that Officer Thomas Ryan paid her $500 to testify against Carter. As the result of her testimony, Officer Ryan went to jail, and Raymond Carter is a free man today - one of at least 137 persons released so far in Philadelphia's continuing police frame-up scandal.
Pamela Jenkins has joined the courageous Veronica Jones, in coming forward to tell the truth about the frame-up of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Does the government now want to claim that their own key witness in the 39th Precinct scandal has suddenly become unbelievable because she has now spilled the beans on the Mumia case?
It seems that only the police know where Cynthia White is, and they aren't saying. After testifying for the prosecution in Mumia's frame-up, Cynthia White continued to work the streets under police protection. Following Mumia's conviction, she was arrested numerous times for prostitution, only to have the charges dismissed, or an easy plea bargain worked out. She had a real "Get Out of Jail Free" card!
Then in 1987 she got into serious trouble and was arrested for robbery. A judge was about to hold her without bail, when Philadelphia homicide detective Douglas Culbreth suddenly appeared in the courtroom with an unusual request. He asked Judge Charles J. Margiotti to release Cynthia White on her own signature because "she was a Commonwealth witness in a very high profile case."
So Judge Margiotti just let her go, and she has not been seen since. She did not appear for her court date on the robbery charge, so there is a warrant outstanding. But the Philly police have no interest in finding her. They have never listed her on the NCIC, the federal governments computer list of wanted criminals. If she gets picked up in another state, her name will not appear and she will not be in danger of being extradited to Philadelphia where she might become available to Mumias defense team.
SOURCES: Press conference with Pamela Jenkins, and court records.
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